Elias looked better ... and worse yesterday.
For most the game he had 3 pitches working... he just needed command, and as Doc put it coherency.
Werth hit a good pitch in a good location, but as Blowers put it - Elias had gone there already, and Werth was looking for it. I do not know how much to put that on Elias and how much to put on Sucre... but I hope they both learned a lesson last night.
The other run Elias gave up was due to hitters looking for the change up... and though the change ups could have been somewhat better placed - the batters were not fooled by the slower speed of the change up, which is the main point for throwing a change up. This is what Strausberg did all night to the Mariner's offense - and the M's looked pathetic all night.
Again, hopefully Sucre and Elias were paying attention.
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A team's never as good as it looks on its best behavior, or as bad as it looks when not. Like Robby says, "they trashed us. Nothing you can do." Take two Robby-isms and call Dr. D in the morning.
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Feeb-Lix
What was so disconcerting about watching Felix get fricasee'd over the fires of Styx?
Diving into a deep bag of possible explanations ... personally I hadn't realized to what extent Felix' dominance relies on his COMMAND.
You watch Felix strike out a leadoff hitter on MLB.com, and he'll throw 6 pitches -- none of which are strikes. He does it again and again: a 93 fastball right on the black, followed by breaking pitches that start convincingly inside the zone and swerve outside.
Friday night, though, it seemed like every pitch was right down the heart, or two feet off the plate: starting off the plate and breaking farther outside it.
It bothers me to realize that Felix' stuff, as such, isn't overwhelming. Of course, this is true of most ten-year All-Stars.
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He might have gotten away with it, on another night. The Nationals put up the best hitting performance that Dr. D has seen in a long, long time. Jayson Werth's homer into the power alley ... he didn't even follow through with the bat. They just sat back, watched the pitches carefully (fouling away the low changeups), and when they got a pitch they barrelled it up with a nice little "click" right on the sweet spot.
It was incredible.
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If Ray Allen has a 1-for-17 shooting night, nobody panics. But then again, Ray Allen plays every night, whereas Felix has to stew in his own juices for four games.
We have forgotten that every great pitcher gets blown away at times. A 16-game Mega streak goeth before a fall.
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I don't take seriously the idea that Felix is gassed. If anything, he looked too strong to me, rocking back a bit too quickly, keeping too tight a pace. "Grab ball, throw ball," at least by his standards. Later in the game, his control improved.
Bill James once said that they didn't let Roger Clemens throw enough. That's my concept of Felix' workload. He's a machine. But they never let the machine throw more than 105 pitches. ... we're not complaining, just shrugging off the "too tired" shtick.
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GameFlow
The last several years, Dr. D has gotten wayyyy into Premier League soccer. His biggest complaint about it, is the importance of the first goal. With the score 1-0, the losing side is in a desperate situation. The winners just stay behind the ball, refuse to streak their runners forward, and the game drops into an impasse. (We don't even want to talk about a 2-0 blowout.)
But there is a redeeming feature: if you're hip to the game flow, the battle for first goal is thrilling.
Against other good pitching teams -- Oakland, Washington, etc -- the early lead is worth a ton. The more so, since McClendon will now go to the bullpen in the 4th inning. With everybody except Felix and Paxton.
I love watching the 4th-inning swapouts. Remember when Tony LaRussa wanted to go the 3IP x 3 concept?
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As you know, the M's hitters looked simply terrific in the early going. Lose the battle, win the war.
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Elias
Roenis has gotten a little incoherent, through fascination with his (developing) dead-fish changeup.
Early in the year, he would attack with the 92 heater in on the hands, get that going, and then mix in the hook. The change was occasional. But now he loves to see a good changeup "pop a parachute" and roll off the table outside, drawing a garbage swing. Dr. D would too! That's a mondo cool pitch, and he can just imagine throwing one.
But it has cost Elias the coherency to his attack, and it has cost him "feel" for his jam pitch and his yellow hammer. Like we say, you're talking young pitchers with stuff, two pitches are better than three. I know a guy in our rotation who makes one work.
LOL,
Jeff